Revenge
by Rebecca Wolfe
Summary: Link's old enemies take advantage of his depression and strike against him.


  
  
Zelda scanned the dark room, her hooded cloak the only thing saving her from recognition. At last she found him, sitting alone.  
"Link!" She snapped, almost hitting him with irritation. "Where in Hylia have you been? It's very irresponsible of you to just run off without even notifying me."  
Link turned to her, a lazy smile on his face, his drink clutched in his hand. "Whatchu talkin' 'bout princess? Now be a dear little maid and drink me a hand-"  
His smile broadened. "Drink me a hand." He laughed loudly, slapping his thigh with mirth. "You can't drink hands!"  
Zelda threw up her arms in disgust. She forced a calm facade and tried to keep her voice level. "Link, you have to pull yourself together. This isn't you, and-"  
"Drink me a hand. Hehe. Haha. Drink me a hand."  
"Oh for Nayru's sake! Link, you're only 17 years old, that's way too young to become an alcoholic!"  
Link giggled, and leaned closer to her, until she could feel his hot breath on her face and smell the overpowering ale. "Lemme let you in on a little something, "He giggled again. "I'm really only 10! I shouldn't even be drinking!"  
Zelda rolled her eyes, but then gently reminded him, "Link, your life isn't over just because Ganon is dead."  
"Ganon was my life!" Link shouted, jumping from his stool and making her jump. "he was everything, and without him, I'm nothing!" He wilted back into his seat, then smiled again, holding up his mug in a toast. "But here's to ale, which brings me to the happy place." He chuckled. "Drink me a hand. Heh heh."  
Zelda sighed impatiently. Link had been through so much, given so much up, that it had only seemed right to give him a home in the palace and keep him from ever having to working again. But now it seemed Link couldn't live without working and fighting.  
"Come on, Hero of Time." She put his arm around her shoulder when he had trouble standing. "I'll get you on guard service at the least. My father will doubtlessly not settle for anything less than you being his champion though. Oh, no, please don't-"  
Zelda held his head when his stomach returned all the ale Link had managed to get down that night.  
  
  
Link paused to wipe the beads of sweat from his forehead, still ignoring Zelda's incessant knocking. Times like these he was thankful he'd let Navi go back to the forest, or else he'd be getting even worse from the scrawny little light bulb. Link sighed, remembering Navi. After the faery had abandoned him because Ganon was too 'hot', Link couldn't look at him the same way. He seemed to be abandoned by everyone. His parents, his friends, his feary. Yes, sending him away had been a good thing. "Link, if you don't open this door, I'll open it myself."  
Link rolled his eyes. "No, don't come in." He said dryly. "I'm naked."  
With disgust Zelda used her powers to unlock the door and open it up. She took in his position on the floor, doing sit ups, with mild amusement. "What are you doing? Are you - are you working out?"  
Link turned over to do another set of pushups. "Don't laugh princess. You're father made me his champion, did you know that? And this time, I'm going to do everything right. No more cheating. No more bracelets or potions or spells."  
"Link, don't be ridiculous. You fought hard to earn those things. Why waste them? It would have taken you years to do things the long way, and then all of Hylia would be ashes."  
"Your point? Ganon is dead. I have time to be normal now. Besides, have you ever thought of how screwed I'd be if Ganon had had the triforce of wisdom instead of you? Then he would have sent thieves after me and stolen all my tunics and bracelets and potions, and I wouldn't have been able to do jack-shit against anyone."  
Zelda found it frustrating that he was right. "But all those things are what made you able to be the Hero of Time."  
"I know. But I'm not the Hero of Time anymore. I can just be normal. Zelda, please, just let me be normal."  
Zelda consented with a sigh. Besides, she thought to herself, a buff Link would be a Zechsy Link. Wink wink.  
"Here, I'll help you." She offered as he turned back over to do more sit ups. She concentrated, and made the air around him heavier. "Now try doing sit ups."  
He smiled, grunting with the effort. "Thanks."   
"Just don't over do it." Zelda produced a cup of water, and rested her hand on his bare shoulder for a moment, enjoying the sensation of his warm skin against hers. "I'm going to put this next to your bed. Keep hydrated, all right?"  
He nodded, and she left with one last glance at him.  
  
"Congratulations Link." The king said in greeting, sweeping his hand across the ball room. "With you as my champion over these last few months, the remaining enemy wishing to retaliate has practically disappeared. And since you've discarded the witch craft, I must admit my soldiers are really beginning to admire you. Using all your resources for the good of the world, and then giving them up to reach your bodie's fullest condition." Link blushed a little, muttering his thanks. The king leaned closer. "And just between you and me, ever since you started working out, Zelda hasn't been able to keep her eyes off you." The king winked, and Link's blush deepened.   
"Um, . . .thanks?"  
The king chuckled. "A modest lad indeed. Would you care for some ale?"  
"No sir. I really am too young to be drinkin-"  
The ballroom doors burst open with a gust of hot air. "Your majesty!" The weary man's raspy voice echoed against the tall ceilings as everyone silenced at the sight of his bloody body. "I'm the only survivor of the patrol - must speak - -." He collapsed on the ground, and Link and Zelda were the first to reach him.  
Link held the man's head as Zelda shot life into him and felt his heat beat again.   
"It's still weak. I don't know if he can make it through the night."  
"Must speak . . " He coughed, splattering blood on Zelda's white dress. "They're after him. Want him to suffer. Hate princess. Revenge. They're coming. Ganon's children . . . his wives . . hide. Run. Revenge. Must get away. . . " his breathing slowed and his heart stopped.  
Zelda and Link stared at each other as the room was filled with a hushed silence.   
  
"This is ridiculous." Link insisted, pointing angrily at the locked door, where, on the other side, ten guards stood watch. "I was the bloody hero of time, and five months later I need body guards."  
"I told you, if you had used your items I would have settled for just locking the door. But no, mister too buff for magic."  
"Plus, it doesn't make sense to keep us together. I mean, if they try to get me, they'll have you too. And they're after me more than you. I'm a danger to you right now. And don't even try to tell me you're here for my protection."  
"Well, if they have magic . . . I could help a lot more than you'd manage." She sighed. "But mostly . . I feel safer when I'm with you." Link gulped and remembered what her father had told him just a few hours ago. He decided to drop the subject.  
The two swore in unison when screams were heard from outside. Link shoved Zelda under the bed, and drew his sword. Just as the door swung open and he let loose a feral battle cry, he felt a wave of air hit him, and he fell to the floor unconscious.  
  
  
"Oh, do wake up, o Hero of Time." The mocking, deep male voice quickly reminded Link where he was. His eyes snapped open, looking frantically around for Zelda. She was chained to a chair, a bruise swelling under her eye, blood trickling from her lip, and a bright red handprint marking both her cheeks.  
"You bastard, how dare you touch the princess-" Link was backhanded, and the chains holding him shook. He finally took in his own situation, chains from the ceiling clasping around his wrists and chains from the floor clasping his ankles. His shoulder joints felt strained. The man that was mocking him had the palest skin, contrasting sharply to his black hair and beady black eyes.  
"I'm guessing you know why you're here Link. I'm pissed. Very pissed. You killed my dad, my father."  
"So kill me. Slice through my flesh as I sliced through you father's. But let her go. She did nothing to you."  
"Oh, I have nothing against the lady. It's my aunts who have a quarrel with her. You see, while she was Ganon's captive, they didn't get much time with him, if you know what I mean. Ganon was quite taken with the princess."  
Link's eyes bulged for a moment. "Zelda, Ganon didn't, did he?"  
She shook her head slowly, as if it hurt to move. Then she closed her eyes, concentrating. Link felt the metal around him weakening, and quickly snapped it apart, using the chains to attack Ganon's son.   
Ganon's son drew his a sword from his scabbard, enjoying the shock on Link's face when it turned out to be the Biggoron sword. But as Ganon's son enjoyed the moment of shock, a chain hit him over the head and Link ran to Zelda. He carried her and the chair out of the cave, hearing female shouts following him. He whistled for Epona, and just managed to send her off before he was hit in the back of the head. He heard Zelda's furious shouts growing further and further away as he slid back into unconsciousness.  
  
Link woke up to the unpleasant feeling of burning. He groaned, his neck and back stiff. He was lying on a table, his hands tied to it above his head and his feet tied to it below. On his chest a candle was burning, the melted wax beginning to overflow and sizzle his skin.  
"I've had worse." He told himself, remembering numerously falling into fire pits as a child.   
"Have you now?" A husky female voice purred. She moved into his field of vision. "Good afternoon Link. I'm Belicia, Ganon's second wife and Malik's mother. I believe you met Malik earlier, no?"  
She drew a delicate blade from her long, black braid. She gracefully brought it right above the center of his six pack. And ever so slowly, she slid it into his skin, pressing into it slowly. Link gasped as he felt it pierce him, felt the pain surge icily through his middle. When she had gone through him and hit the table, she twisted it, just as slowly. Link screamed as she twisted again, his entire body shuddering. He closed his eyes, refusing to let any tears pass by, sure he'd been through worse. Those humping zombies were pretty bad after all, both physically and emotionally traumitizing.  
"Please stop." He moaned when she began twisting the blade in a circle again.  
"Well, if you're going to be a gentlemen about it, all right." Just as she pulled the blade out of him, she stabbed it back in, this time viciously, and into his lung.  
He screamed as it entered, a yell that tore his throat and made the cave's ceiling vibrate. He began coughing, feeling the warm blood he hacked up against his burning skin.  
"Now, now mother." Malik's voice chided. "That's really quite unfair." Another blast of pain, this time in his other lung, had Link screaming again. "Arrows are what he used against father. And arrows are what we should use against him." The barbed arrow twisting in his other lung hurt so much worse Link longed for the smooth blade. He could feel his tissue ripping and tearing, could feel blood clouding his lung as breathing became harder  
"Please." He gasped.   
"What, you want I should take them out?"  
Link took a deep breath so that his voice could come out strong, "I want you should go to hell you bastard. Join your father you piece of worthless, demented-"  
Malik tore the blade and arrow out from him. "Now, now. Let's not be harsh. Words hurt too, you know." As Link screamed from the removal of the weapons, Belicia poured the potion of life down his throat, then giggled at the startlement on Link's face. His color returned, and his breathing became deep and regular.  
"What, you thought we were going to kill you? Nah."  
"Now we get to do it all over again." Belicia's shrill laughter was highly disturbing as she reached for an arrow.  
  
"Thanks for coming back." Zelda whispered, and almost thought the faery nodded.  
"I owe him, after all."  
"I would never have asked you Navi. But I don't think I had time to make it all the way back to the castle. The forest was so close. I'm afraid Link might not have much time."  
"We'll get him out princess. I'll guide your arrows. And I promise; I won't abandon you." Navi hoped the shame in his voice wasn't obvious. The last time he'd abandoned someone would be a time never forgotten.  
Zelda jumped into the cave entrance, startling two of Ganon's wives, and using Navi's guide they were dead before they could utter a warning.   
  
Malik looked up to see his aunts dying quickly. He cut Link free, throwing him a small sword. "I don't want to die without fighting you honorably. Your lady friend better not interfere." They squared off, finding a spot clear of fallen bodies. Link could feel the weakness in his sword as it sparked against Biggoron. But with the potion of life in him, he moved quickly and felt as strong as he had once only felt wearing a magicked bracelet.  
"You can't win Link." Malik shouted even as he was being backed into the wall and as he desperately blocked Link's precise attacks.   
"Even if you kill me, you'll die. You think I would challenge you without your death assur-" Malik choked, the small sword run through him. He gasped, not noticing as Link pulled Biggoron from his hand. But then Malik's thin lips smiled eerily. "As soon as I die, this place will collapse. Will you make it out, hero of time?" And with his last burst of energy, he pulled a large dagger from his boot and once again, stabbed Link. Then Malik slid to the floor, leaving a long trail of blood to stain the wall.  
"Link!" Zelda screamed, dropping her bow. Link barely heard her yelling over the rumbling of the rocks overhead and the pounding of the blood in his temples. She rushed to him, pulling him up from his knees when he collapsed despite her weary arms and drained energy. Zelda guided him back out, pulling and pleading, meanwhile draining her magical energy holding up the cave's ceiling. As soon as she had collapsed outside the entrance the entire cave collapsed.   
"Link, Link!" His eyes fluttered shut and Zelda threw her head back as the first rain drops fell, pleading to all the Goddesses with despair.   
A small blue light floated to her through the rain. Navi's light Zelda's river of tears. "Please Navi. I'm too weak. Please tell me you can do something," Zelda begged.   
The small faery moved to the wound. "I'm not a healing faery. But every faery has a life force, and I can use it up and transfer it to Link. I hope it works."   
Zelda prayed, watching as the light from Navi faded and the breath in Link strengthen, until Navi dimmed and fell and Link's eyes snapped open.  
Zelda embraced him, letting her tears fall with the rain.  
"What-what happened?" Link looked down to the lightless body of his faery, speechless. His own tears joined Zelda's in the rain.   
Epona's hoofbeats echoed in the silent field, and Zelda picked up Navi's body delicately. "Come Champion. Let's go home."  
Link nodded slowly, then for the first time took in Zelda. Her sweat and blood soaked clothes, her drained and weary sapphire eyes. Finally, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
